Proceedings Paper

Lasers offer new and extended possibilities for material processing. As the laser beam is a very precise working tool of high flexibility, free from wear-out, there are already various applications such as drilling, cutting, welding, glazing, annealing, hardening, and others. To utilize the advantages of laser processing it is necessary to understand the physical background of laser material processing as there is a strong coupling between laser and target by the working process, severely influencing the processing results, as well as the performance of the laser tool itself. So any laser tool has to be matched carefully to the special application, in order to achieve the results desired.